In the Heat
by The Nerdinator
Summary: New Heroes, S1E1. A monster heatwave has hit Clarksburg, and the hot, humid conditions give Sarah Senia the perfect chance to send a swarm of massive carnivorous plants to overrun the city! Can the Grossologists beat the heat long enough to stop her, or will everyone on Earth end up as flytrap chow?
1. Cold Open

The horticulturist mopped his brow. "Man, it's hot in here!" he complained. The fact that he was in a greenhouse in a massive heatwave did not help him.

Picking up a wheelbarrow filled with fertilizer, he moved on down the row of plants. He tripped and fell onto a large, rubbery leaf.

He tried to get up, but was stuck. The leaf, which was one of many attached to a small, purplish flower held high above the rest of the plant, was covered in a very sticky substance.

While the horticulturist struggled to get free, a figure in the shadows grinned evilly.

(Cue theme song).


	2. Ty is Bacon

**AN: This fic is set on August 20, 2014**

* * *

"It's so hot out!" Abby griped. She and Ty were in the backyard, sitting on a pair of beach chairs. Well, Abby was sitting. Ty had draped himself over one of the armrests.

"I know," Ty groaned. "You could fry bacon out here." A flash of light, and Ty was now a strip of bacon, which began to sizzle in the heat. "Yup."

"Ty, I think you should demorph. The vultures are starting to circle." Abby thought, then said, "Either that, or the heat is messing with my head."

Another flash of light, and now Ty was a desert iguana. "Even my reptile morphs can't bear the heat!" Ty groaned, morphing back into his human self. "I hate today."

"Me too. All those people who say that global warming is a hoax? Well, it's the hottest day of the year, and it's ninety-five degrees in the shade. Literally!"

"I'm still amazed Mom forced us outside," Ty said. "It's not just hot; it's humid! There might be a storm later today. Doesn't help that when air gets warmer, it can hold more water."

"Why isn't Jetpack out, too?"

"One, he doesn't need to breathe, while we do. Two, the heat would kill his circuits...and possibly him with them."

The two sat in silence until a familiar noise filled the air. After making sure nobody was looking (which they weren't; anyone with sense was staying indoors), Abby pulled out her grossometer. The hot metal burned her hand. Abby yelped and pulled her hand away.

Ty opened it up for her, the skin on his fingers charring from the heat.

"Grossologists..." The Director groaned, sweating profusely.

"Don't tell me, we have a mission," Abby said while Ty peeled the burned skin off his hand, new skin instantly growing to replace it.

"Afraid so. A horticulturist had an encounter with an oversized plant, and we need you to investigate." The transmission ended.

"Dangit," Ty said. "Now we have to get up."

"Ty, shut it," Abby snapped.

Sluggishly, they got up, zipped off to the nearest secret entrance, and suited up.


	3. Butterwort my butt and Call me a Biscuit

"What happened?" Abby asked The Detective. They were in Clarksburg's greenhouse, sweltering in the heat.

"One of the horticulturists tripped and got stuck on that plant over there," he replied, pointing to the mysterious plant. "Literally, he was sticking to the leaves. And when he got free, he had to go to the hospital for chemical burns."

Eyeing the plant, Abby motioned for Ty to come forward. Coming close to the plant (but not too close), they examined it.

"It's a butterwort," Abby said. "Large, flat, succulent leaves that secrete a natural glue to trap insects. Once they have their quarry, they secrete enzymes that break down the insect's flesh, leaving the exoskeleton behind."

"Then why is it so large?" Ty asked. "They're supposed to grow only ten inches tall at the max. But this is fifteen times too big."

"Better get a sample, then. Lab Rat will know what to do with it."

Ty stretched his left arm up, extending its length so he could grab a petal from the butterwort's single, purple blossom. He did so, then retracted his arm until it was back to its proper length, now carrying a nine-inch flower petal.

"Try not to eat that," Abby said.

Ty gave her a look.

* * *

"What are you here for?" Ty asked, on noticing Paige and Chester sprawled out on the lab's examination table.

"Two words: air. Conditioning," Paige said groggily.

"It's especially hot where we live," Chester offered as explanation. "Our ventilation systems can't keep up with the temperature."

"What about the humidity? Doesn't that bother you?" Ty wanted to know.

"Not for him," Paige explained. "Supposedly Kid Rot lived in him for so long that he developed a fungus' tolerance of moist weather."

"Still, Chester _is_ pretty hot, though," Abby remarked, blushing to herself a little.

"No duh," Lab Rat said from his "office" (really a corner of the lab set aside for the computers). "It's 110 degrees out."

"Aren't you supposed to be doing something important with our sample?"

"The network's slow because of this danged heat." There was a beep. "Guess it's done now."

An image of a butterwort filled the display screen next to the computer.

"The specimen you found belonged to the species _Pinguicula vulgaris_ , the common butterwort," he explained. "The individual you found had the genes regulating its size and growth rate altered, so that the plant would grow to a human scale in a few hours."

"There is only one villain," Chester said from his spot, "who I know would grow one of those things: Sarah Senia."

"I remember her. Sorta," Ty commented. "So...do we just get a bunch of brain mold...or-"

"Brain mold? Heck no. She'll be expecting that."

"So how are we going to stop her from making flytrap chow out of us if we can't use what's fatal to every sort of bug-munching topiary?"

"I've got an idea," Paige said, rolling onto her back so the air conditioning cool reach her chest. "Carnivorous plants are carnivorous because they live in places like marshes and rainforests where there's little nitrogen in the soil. If we can starve them long enough, we may have a chance at keeping Senia from taking over."

"Sounds good to me," Ty said.

"Hold on. Can't carnivorous plants photosynthesize too?" Abby asked.

"They can't fix nitrogen, and all life on the planet needs nitrogen to survive."

Silence.

Which was soon broken.


	4. Little Greenhouse of Horror

The messaging screen fizzled on, revealing a panicked Director flailing his arms about. "GROSSOLOGISTS!" he yelped. "There's been another disturbance at another greenhouse in the center of Clarksburg. Venus flytraps! I've already sent Naomi over to evacuate it; now I need you to get rid of those plants before they-" he shuddered - "destroy us all!" The transmission ended.

"C'mon, Ty," Abby called to her brother as she headed for the GRS-1. "We've got some flytraps to pull up."

"Good," he replied. "The sooner we get this over with, the sooner this episode can end."

* * *

Arriving at the greenhouse, the two had to shield their eyes from the sun. It was almost noon, and the heat was unbearable.

"Geesh," Abby panted, adjusting her goggles. "I'm sweating like a pig in this thing. If pigs could sweat, that is."

"You have it easy," Ty said. "Your hair isn't black. Mine is, and it's absorbing more heat than yours."

"I'm bigger than you are. I have a lower surface area-to-volume ratio. I can't give off heat as rapidly as you do," she said as they entered the steaming greenhouse. They found Naomi underneath a nexus of tall, yellow-green plants with bear trap-shaped leaves, her goopshooter poised.

"Hey Ni," Ty said, smiling a little.

"Hey guys," she replied. "Everyone else is out. It's just us. So, what's the plan?"

"Paige said we should try to starve them," Abby said. "Without nitrogen, they can't survive. But how do we keep them from feeding?"

"Easy. See the traps? We cut them off. Without them, it can't eat. And since those are modified leaves, the plant won't be able to photosynthesize either, eventually causing it to die."

"Can't we just goop them?"

"I tried that already."

"And?"

"It digested the goop."

Ty, meanwhile, had decided to do something about the plants while the girls were conversing. He morphed his right forearm into an axe, and, gripping its handle with his left hand, swung it into the plant. There was a squelching noise, and the stalk of one leaf fell to the ground, right between the girls.

Naomi recoiled a bit. Abby simply gave her brother a look. He responded with "You weren't doing anything, were you?" and went back to cutting down more stems.

"Well, at least the plan is working," Naomi said. "Perhaps we should make sure the leaf can't close ever again."

"Done," Abby said, effortlessly pulling the lobes outwards with a snap. The leaf now hung limp at the base of the stalk.

"WAUGH!"

They turned around to see Ty had gotten snatched up by a cape sundew.

"Dangit," Naomi grumbled. "We have to fight _two_ family Droseraceae plants?"

"And in this weather, no less," Abby added.

The two girls began firing at the plant, covering its sticky surface with goop. Ty, demorphing his arm,wrestled out of the sundew's grasp, and slid down the length of the leaf to safety...right into another of the plant's leaves.

"Dangit."

"Forget it," Ty said. "I have a better idea." And with that, he morphed into a pea aphid and plunged his proboscis into the leaf, sucking it dry. He did the same to the other leaves, and finally sucked all the fluid out of the root system, killing the plant. He scurried over to the flytrap and did the same. The plant wilted, lost its color, and finally died.

Ty demorphed and belched. "Man, carnivorous plant sap tastes funny."

"I didn't know there were insects that ate carnivorous plants," Naomi said. "So...would that make them herbivores or omnivores?"

"I don't care," Abby said. "As long as it kills those things, I'm fine with it."

The three walked out of the greenhouse and back to the GRS-1. However, Naomi, who was at the back of the group, found a tendril wrapping around her waist. Then she was dragged off, so quickly she couldn't cry for help.

"Perhaps we should ask Insectiva if she's willing to loan some aphids to us," Ty joked.

"Pfft. Please. She'd probably use the aphids for consuming our food supply instead," Abby replied.

"Well, what do you think, Naomi?" He turned around.

"Where did she go?"

* * *

 **Dun dun DUNN!**


	5. Frozen

"She's gone," Abby said firmly. "This isn't good."

"How much money would you bet on Sarah Senia having abducted her?"

"None. I'm not giving you any of my allowance."

"Dangit..."

"I wouldn't give you my underwear either, if I had any," Jetpack piped up.

"GAH!" Abby yelped. Once she had collected herself, she turned to him and barked, "Jetpack, you moron! 'Allowance' isn't a brand of underwear!"

"It should be," Ty said. "Just to mess with people." Turning to Jetpack, he asked, "Why are you here?"

"Mom told me to go look for you two. I told her the heat would be bad for me, but she didn't listen."

"Tell her we're busy on a mission," Abby said. "Naomi went missing, and we can't find her."

"How does one 'miss'?" Jetpack asked.

Abby cringed.

"I could track her, if you like," the robot offered. "Just locate her grossometer-thingy and we go from there."

"Why didn't I think of that?!" Ty exclaimed. "Jetpack, for a robot who's not very smart, you are a genius."

"What's a genius?"

"Someone who's very smart."

"Oh."

"Can we just go already?" Abby asked.

Jetpack began to flap his wings, intent on getting airborne...but his wings were flapping very slowly.

"My joints feel hot," Jetpack said.

"I guess we're taking the GRS-1, then," Ty said. "The temperature is so high that Jetpack's computer processors can't move fast enough. Too slow for him to be able to fly."

"I _hate_ global warming," Abby grumbled.

* * *

They found where Naomi was.

They also found a six-story yellow pitcher plant in the middle of Clarksburg, with Naomi held over it by Sarah Senia herself.

"Sarah Senia squared," Lab Rat commented through Ty's grossometer.

"Huh?" Jetpack asked.

"That particular pitcher plant belongs to the genus _Sarracenia_. Sarah Senia's name is a pun on that. Thus, Sarah Senia squared."

"Now who would name their kid that?" Ty asked.

"Don't blame her parents, blame the writers," Chester said from offscreen.

Suddenly Chester was attacked by a pineapple. The transmission ended.

"And _that_ ," Ty said, "is why you should never diss the writers."

The GRS-1 landed on the street, at the base of the pitcher plant. The Archers got out and went to the plant's base.

"Hey, Senia," Abby called up to the villainess. "We heard you had a weed problem, so we decided to take care of it."

"Fools," Senia snarled. "I'm not letting my plan go to waste. Carnivorous plants aren't depicted correctly in the media, so I'm helping them retaliate."

"Sounds a bit disproportionate, don't you think?" Naomi asked timidly.

"Stuff it, Walters."

Naomi had finally had enough, so she chomped down on the tendril that was holding her. Sarah Senia let go with a pained yelp, dropping her into the gaping maw of the pitcher plant's leaf.

"She needs a _hole_ lot of help if she's going to get out of that," Ty said (Abby groaned at the pun). "Jetpack, use your claws to cut open the leaf."

Jetpack extended his claws with an audible _shrik_ and slashed into it, creating a large gash. Naomi and the plant's digestive juices spilled out onto the pavement.

"Ew ew ew ew ew ew," Naomi said, scrambling to her feet and scurrying behind Ty.

Once she recovered, Sarah Senia noticed her foes readying their goopshooters (save Jetpack, who turned around and readied the acid cannon in his abdomen). "Four against one, you say? Hmm...let me even those odds." She let out a cloud of odd-smelling gas, and soon enough a new pack of sundews showed up. Sarah Senia got down from her pitcher plant and lifted her tendrils into the air. Another blast, and the sundews lashed out at anyone they could reach.

"Plant hormones," Abby said. "So that's how she controls them."

"Yeah," Naomi said. "She is one cold person, but she loves her plants."

"Cold," Ty said. "That's it. Carnivorous plants can't survive cold temperatures. That's why she's attacking today; the plants can't grow in normal Massachusetts conditions."

"So global warming really is evil," Abby said. "It damages the environment, _and_ lets villains take over the world."

"I need a morph that can create low temperatures instantaneously," Ty said. "And I think I know just the one."

His body became enveloped in light...

* * *

Ty's arms became more muscular and hairier. His body changed, becoming more gorilla-like. The hair on his body became a thick, woolly coat, and the hair changed color to bluish-white.

Where the human once stood, a nine-foot-tall yeti was in his place.

* * *

"Hey, Senia!"

"What do you want?" she growled.

"It's time to put the _snow_ back in _abominable snowman_!" Ty breathed hard, letting out a frosty breeze that froze one of the sundews. Ty broke off a leaf and ate it. "Plantsicle, anyone?"

Abby facepalmed.

Ty blasted the other plants, freezing them solid (and therefore killing them). Sarah Senia watched in horror, not noticing Naomi whip out her goopshooter and cover her in the green concoction. Another blast, this time from Jetpack's acid cannon, created a small pothole that the villainess, while struggling to get free, tripped on.

"And it's good!" Ty said. He let out a victorious roar, sending out a large gust of frigid air.

Suddenly, lightning flashed.

"What's happening?" Ty asked, demorphing.

"You do know what happens when a cold front meets a warm front, right?" Abby asked.

It started raining.

"At least it's not hot anymore," Jetpack said, steam puffing out from underneath his wings.

"At least now we have a decent excuse to stay inside," Abby said.

"Knowing Mom, I half-expect her to keep us outside," Ty replied. Then he fell into a puddle. "Oh, great. Well, at least now I don't have to take a bath."

Abby rolled her eyes.

Meanwhile, in the background, Jetpack decided to drink some rain.

* * *

 **AN: Credits are coming, don't worry.  
**


	6. Credits Gag

"Hey Ty?" Paige asked.

"Hm?"

"How come you weren't worried about Naomi when she got abducted?"

"Paige, we've all been abducted before at least once. And Naomi can handle herself pretty well. I figured she would be fine."

"That makes sense, but...why was Chester attacked by a pineapple?

"He dissed the writers. That's usually a bad idea."

The end.


End file.
